It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.
CLICK HERE to see the full 5 o’clock club archive
This was published by Pro Football Talk this week:
As Washington, D.C., plans its bid to host the 2027 NFL draft, the city is hoping for a major event that would have hundreds of thousands of fans on the National Mall.
The National Park Service confirmed to the Washington Post that the National Mall could be used as a venue for draft events.
“The National Park Service has provided a letter of support to Events DC [the organization in negotiation with the NFL] for the NFL draft ‘to the degree that portions identified to take place on the National Mall can be organized and managed within the special event, sponsor recognition, and turf management guidelines in place for this iconic cultural landscape,’” NPS chief of communications Mike Litterst said in a statement.
Per the Washington Post:
The league, according to the emails, proposed having the main stage for the draft on Fourth Street between Madison and Jefferson drives, near the National Gallery of Art and the National Air and Space Museum. A portion could also be held on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, where attendees could flow to the Mall.
The District had previously explored trying to host the 2024 draft, which ultimately was awarded to Detroit.
Detroit hosted a record crowd of 775,000 over the three-day event in April. D.C. was among 12 cities with representatives at that draft to conduct site surveys, a person with knowledge of the matter has said.
The broadcasts of the opening round of the draft in Detroit this year averaged 12.1 million viewers — more than any World Series or Stanley Cup finals game last year and more than all but one NBA Finals game and all but one college football regular season game last year.
The NFL typically likes to decide draft host cities at least a couple of years in advance. It announced last year that Green Bay, Wis., will host the 2025 draft, and it announced in May that Pittsburgh will host the 2026 event. The league, according to emails between NPS officials, purportedly hoped to get a guarantee for an approved permit on the Mall for 2027, but the agency does not accept permit applications for special events more than a year out.
It’s not clear when the NFL will award the 2027 draft. Team owners meet on a quarterly basis. But the selection process could last until next May, if the NFL follows the timetable by which it awarded the 2026 draft.
[T]he competition between cities attempting to host a future NFL draft as intense, and there are no assurances Washington’s effort will be successful.
Assuming this actually were to happen in 2027, which representatives of the city and/or football team would you bring out on the stage with Roger Goodell to fire up the crowd just prior to the official opening of the draft?
You must be logged in to post a comment Login